Various cooling techniques have been developed to cool heat generated by components in computer systems. These techniques may include passive cooling and active cooling. Passive cooling may include the use of a heat pipe. Active cooling may include the use of a pump and a liquid transport.
Modern electronic circuits, because of their high density and small size, often generate a substantial amount of heat. Complex integrated circuits (ICs), especially microprocessors, generate so much heat that they are often unable to operate without some sort of cooling system. Further, even if an IC is able to operate, excess heat can degrade an IC's performance and can adversely affect its reliability over time. Inadequate cooling can cause problems in central processing units (CPUs) which can result in system crashes, lockups, reboots, and other errors. The risk of such problems can become especially acute in the tight confines found inside mobile computers and other portable computing and electronic devices. Current techniques for thermal management may include the use of heat sinks, fans, and combinations of heat sinks and fans attached to ICs and other circuitry. With faster and more powerful electronic components, these techniques have been inadequate.